Good old Maggie, eh? She sorted out those pesky unions, holding the country to ransom. And, bless her; she let you buy your own council house. Hey, you even managed to get yourself a piece of the ‘shareholding democracy’ when she sold off the utilities and telecoms so her fat cat mates in the City could get ever richer.
“There is no such thing as society” she intoned and you lapped it up, eagerly, as you bought into the culture of greed is good. You were happy bowing to the rule of profit, all hail the wealth creators!
The miners’ strike? Fuck ‘em, right? You scabbed and even gloated about doing so. Waving your wage packet from the safety of the reinforced bus as the police escorted you through.
Once Maggie got through with Arthur, she started on the steel industries, the civil service, nurses, teachers, you name it. Anything to eradicate even a semblance of solidarity and collective action. You urged her on, voted her in three times, licking your lips as an extra holiday a year became a reality. A new car every three years and, Christ, check out your pension, Mr Fat Wallet! Let the good times roll! Yep, she changed Britain forever and Tony Blair, or Tory Plan B, to use an appropriate anagram, carried on her work. Extended it, deepened it and made it unassailable for another decade at least.
By 2000, the Thatcher revolution was complete. Solidarity, collective endeavour and helping your neighbour, all wiped from the cultural landscape along with the once-thriving and vibrant communities that spawned those ideals and kept them alive. Of course, there were a few downsides for you, a few niggling doubts starting to set in. Pension looking very shaky all of a sudden, your meagre shares worthless and your Mum’s new hip postponed three times as the NHS cuts, sorry, ‘reforms’, really started to bite.
And then, horror of horrors, the markets crashed, your house price fell and, almost before you knew it, there were mobs of feral youths rampaging around outside. Burning your car and pissing through your letterbox. Youths that were the second and third generations from the communities you helped destroy. After all, a penny extra on your income tax to subsidise inner city scum? Fuck that!
Youths brainwashed and conditioned by the collective sum of thirty years consumerist propaganda. You gotta have ‘stuff’, you gotta have money and ‘things’. Sadly, they lacked the education to join the dots. Couldn’t work out why their schools were closed or the funding cut, as teachers, scape-goated by successive governments struggled to make a difference, all the while trying to defend their own jobs, pay and conditions. Ditto the firemen, nurses, dinner ladies et al…
Yeah, they wanted the ‘stuff’ but how? No job, no chance of one, university maybe? Slog your balls off to end up thirty grand in debt, ready to stack shelves on minimum wage or join all the other degree holders on the dole. Besides, they were ‘scum’, ‘chavs’ ‘feral pond life’ ‘scroungers’ and ‘criminals’, right? Condemned, alienated, cut off and excluded from society, they created their own. Based on imported gang culture, violence, drugs. Where fear, respect and having a ‘rep’ became the aspirations to replace the ones from which they’d been cut off.
And so now you cower in your devalued house, the one with negative equity, bleating that it’s not fair! That these animals aren’t political! They’re just greedy, immoral, violent thugs! Of course they are. What else could they be? You supported the wiping out of entire communities and the destruction of entire industries if it stood in the way of an extra few quid in your pocket, caring only for yourself. Why should the looting scum be any different? You never gave a shit for anyone but yourself, why should they?
So you cry for the firemen to put out the blaze engulfing your home, the firemen you scorned and sneered at when they were on strike, asking for your support. You need an ambulance now as the Mrs has keeled over with all the stress, terror and horror of the last few days. The same ambulance men you thought should be privatised, cut and sacked. After all, why should you have to pay for anything from your taxes?
You made this happen. You and the millions of selfish, greedy, short sighted bastards just like you. You got the world you created, the world you deserved. So suck it up. Stop snivelling. Stop your hypocritical cries of outrage and moral indignation. Everything has to be paid for, yeah? Well, you had yours and now you’ve got the bill. Time to pay…
